McIlroy’s big finish nets tie with Fleetwood
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The easy way out was to go low under a tree 20 feet in front of Rory McIlroy.
He was looking up. Coming off a 10-foot eagle and a 20-foot birdie that tied him for the lead Friday in The Players Championship, McIlroy risked wasting that great finish with a bold shot. His caddie, Harry Diamond, tried to talk him out of it. McIlroy instead opened the face of a pitching wedge and sent it straight up in the air, letting the right-to-left wind carry it onto the green 15 feet away.
“I stepped over it a couple times like, `No, I think I can do this,’ ” McIlroy said. “I just opened up a wedge as much as I could and just took a swipe at it, and the ball sort of came out the way I thought.”
He got his par for a 7-under 65 and was tied with Tommy Fleetwood, who had a better start than McIlroy finished. Fleetwood opened birdie-eagle-birdie on his way to a 67, giving him a share of the 36-hole lead for the second straight week.
They were at 12-under 132, three shots clear of anyone else.
And they were nine shots ahead of Tiger Woods, who played solid golf except for one hole — the wrong hole. Woods put two balls into the water on the notorious par-3 17th, leading to a quadruple bogey that wiped out a good start and forced him to settle for a 71.
The biggest surprise from the group three shots behind might be the 48-year-old Jim Furyk, mainly because he didn't think he would be at Sawgrass. After devoting two years as Ryder Cup captain, his world ranking plunged 194 spots to No. 231. But a great finish at the start of the Florida swing to tie for ninth moved him high enough in the FedEx Cup to get into the strongest field in golf at the last minute.
And then he delivered his best score in 80 rounds over 25 years, a 64 that put him in the group at 9under 135.
“I thought this was an off week,” Furyk said. “It's a nice gift, an opportunity.”
Ian Poulter, who resurrected his PGA Tour career with a runner-up finish at The Players two years ago, had a 66 and was three shots behind, along with Abraham Ancer of Mexico (66) and Brian Harman (69).
Dustin Johnson, the world's No. 1 player, also had an eagle-birdiepar finish for a 68. He was in the group five shots behind.
McIlroy hasn't won since Bay Hill a year ago, though he has had his chances for more. The Arnold Palmer Invitational last week was the ninth time in his last 30 tournaments dating to the start of 2018 that he played in the final group without winning.
But he has been patient.
“I just need to keep seeing red numbers,” McIlroy said. “I don't need a win. I'm not putting myself under pressure to … again, winning is a byproduct of doing all the things that I'm doing well.”
After a sluggish start — even par through seven holes — McIlroy ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch that turned around a round capped by his great escape over the tree.
McIlroy said he told NBC Sports analyst Roger Maltbie that “playing with Phil the last two days maybe inspired me to play a shot like that.” That would be Phil Mickelson, who didn't play very inspired, at all. Mickelson had another 74 and missed the cut at The Players for the sixth time in the last seven years.
Fleetwood knows a thing or two about fast starts. Last month in Mexico, he started eagle-eagle.
“I had a great range session warming up, and all you want to do then is make sure you try and take that out onto the course, which was very different,” Fleetwood said. “I had the absolute dream start.”